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Crosswinds were a factor along the shore of the Shannon River

The Ross Castle near start in Kilkenny

Bozic wins

Racing alongside the Shannon

Send in the clowns

CSC ramps up the chase on the narrow Irish roads

Hunt in the hunt

Pasamontes and Vandenbergh

Pate does a little stretching in preparation for a late break

Vandenbergh keeps the leader's jersey for another day

Dear Readers,

Welcome to this week's edition of The Prologue, the weekly news summary from the world of competitive cycling by your friends at Velonews.com.

In June I discussed my concern regarding psychological effects of use of performance enhancing drugs. I had also heard from some of the riders about medical injuries related to doping. On Monday August 13th, Joe Papp, addressing a South Florida high school coaches’ conference on behalf of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, discussed the doping-related medical complications he encountered in July of 2006. I asked Papp to tell me more about his injury to illustrate the medical dangers of doping. These are injuries the riders keep to themselves as part of the shame and secrecy of doping.

Belgium's Nick Nuyens (Cofidis) won the first stage of the Eneco Tour of Benelux on Thursday after a tough day of racing over the climbs made famous by some of cycling's Belgian one-day classics. Nuyens dominated Dutch ace Thomas Dekker (Rabobank) and Spaniard Jose Luis Gutierrez (Caisse d’Epargne) on the uphill finish at the end of the 189.5km race from Waremme to Eupen, taking the overall lead from Dutch teammate Michiel Elijzen. Elijzen, who had won the prologue on Wednesday, finished several minutes in arrears as some of the climbs, which feature on the one-day classics

Andrew Hood has been enjoying his time in Ireland. We're glad he's camera, but a little disappointed that we didn't get the assignment, too.

It almost seemed unfair when the world No. 1 team ganged up on an untested youngster in Thursday’s hilly second stage at the Tour of Ireland. But Stijn Vandenbergh, Unibet.com’s unheralded neo-pro, proved he’s savvier than his 23 years when he fended off a collective effort by Team CSC to keep his yellow jersey dreams alive in the 166km run from Clonakilty to Killarney along Ireland’s stunning southwest coast. That’s not to say there weren’t some dicey moments for Vandenbergh, who surprised the favorites in Wednesday’s opener into Cork and take a huge 13-minute head start on all but nine

Papp in Florida

In the hospital at Pescia.

Nuyens takes the stage and the lead

Borut Bozic, who later sprinted to fourth, before the start

Unibet.com lines up in front of Clonakilty's main church

Norwegian national champ Alexander Kristoff (Maxbo-Bianchi)

The peloton couldn't stop for a pint, but we could

Craig Lewis (Slipstream) riding strong in Ireland

A view from Thursday's spectacular route

View from Healy Pass summit

Frank Schleck (CSC).

Vandenbergh had reason to celebrate after fending off a tough challenge from CSC.

Pasamontes helped tow the boss back into the field and then went to work patrolling the front of the field.

CSC's Frank Schleck

Vandenbergh held his own and survived a tough day in yellow.

Breschel best as Vandenbergh endures CSC assault

Slipstream's Lewis and Dugan

Navigators' Sergey Lagutin

The UCI is ready to renegotiate the structure of the ProTour, Pat McQuaid said Wednesday, but the organization’s president said he is not prepared to compromise on the overall “governance of cycling.” McQuaid and the organizers of the sport’s three grand tours – the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta a España – have argued for more than a year over the structure the ProTour, the number of teams and economic issues, including television rights. Much of that dispute involves Tour de France organizer Amaury Sports Organization (ASO), which also promotes such major races as Paris-Nice,

We finally managed to wrest our boy Andrew Hood away from his frothy, dark liquid breakfast this morning and sent him off to cover the first stage of the Tour of Ireland on Wednesday. We remembered to grab his camera before sending him on his way.

Hardship is the middle name for any professional cyclist, but Aaron Olson and Craig Lewis both overcame more than their fair share of setbacks to make it to Wednesday’s start of the reborn Tour of Ireland. Olson (T-Mobile) was broadsided by a car just 10 days ago in Spain while Lewis (Slipstream) shook off jet lag after arriving in the start in Kilkenny barely 12 hours before starting the decisive 174km stage to Cork. Despite the stumbling blocks, both managed to sneak into the winning 10-rider move with Olson slotting into second at 14 seconds behind the late-attacking Stijn Vandenbergh,

Levi Leipheimer says he is “sad” that the Discovery Channel team won’t continue after this year and that he is having to look for a new team, especially as he is enjoying his “best season ever.” But after finishing on the podium at the Tour de France and winning the Tour of California and two stages of the Tour de Georgia this year, Leipheimer should have no trouble finding a new sponsor for 2008. But he would rather stay put at Discovery. Asked to comment about the team’s departure from the sport at the end of 2007, Leipheimer said in a telephone interview with VeloNews Tuesday night, “It’s

McQuaid is willing to discuss the make up of the ProTour.

Prudhomme, McQuaid and teams' representative Patrick Lefevre tried to show unity earlier this year, but the relationship proved to be tenuous.

Nicolas Roche, racing on Irish national team, is big draw

Riders roll in for sign-in in front of the Kilkenny castle

King Kelly pressing the flesh

Green banners fly at Kilkenny start

VN.TV presenter Dave Towle is doing color at Irish tour

The spectacular Lismore castle midway through stage

Maximiliano Richeze leads Panaria-Navigare in sprints

Irish podium girls wear green

Vanderbergh wins one for a team that ends its run at season's end.

Quick recovery: Olsen on the attack.

A busy, chaotic day with a series of attacks.

Out on the Vee

Roche is a big favorite here in Ireland.

Vanderbergh in yellow

Schleck and Pate give it a shot

Panaria gives chase

On St. Patrick's Hill

Lewis crests St. Patrick's.

Unibet.com will be motivated to defend the jersey.

Leipheimer's Tour performance sure didn't hurt his marketability.

Dear Lennard,Was there any official report as to why David Millar's rear wheel fellapart during the stage 19 time trial at the Tour de France. I have neverseen anything like that. He seemed to have multiple wheels with the sameproblem right up to his mechanic riding a new bike out to him. How weirdwas that?Christopher Dear Christopher,Yes, I saw that, too. We tried to find out that day what happened,but didn't get any official word as the team handed off the wheel to themanufacturer for analysis. Fortunately, we contacted Mavic to see whatthey had learned.LennardAnswer from Mavic:As

Vuelta a España organizer Unipublic released a preliminary start list for the three-week national tour, which begins on September 1 with a team time trial in Vigo, Spain. Americans Christian Vande Velde (CSC), Chris Horner (Predictor-Lotto) and Tom Danielson (Discovery) are scheduled to start the race. Horner and Vande Velde both completed the Tour de France last month. Americans Tyler Farrar (Cofidis) and Jason McCartney (Discovery) are listed as reserves for their respective teams. 2007 Vuelta a España - Preliminary Start ListAg2r Prevoyance1. Arrieta Lujambio José Luis, (Sp)2. Deignan

It was during the 72nd kilometer of stage 5 of the TransRockies Challenge that my go juice ran out. The once-rolling trail had turned abruptly skyward, clawing its way vertically over loose sand and boulders. My bike was no longer a means of transportation; it became an awkward, heavy anchor that I pushed and all-too-often banged into. The sun emerged from behind the clouds, and the haze from a nearby forest fire lifted. It was hot. I hiked. And hiked. I imagined my brains boiling in my head and puffs of steam blowing out of my ears, like Yosemite Sam might do after swallowing a stick of

After a way-too-long 15-year hiatus, the Tour of Ireland is back on the international racing calendar with a race worthy of one of Europe’s most colorful and rich cycling traditions. Twenty years after Stephen Roche won cycling rare treble of the Giro, Tour and world title and more than a decade after Sean Kelly finally hung up his cleats, Irish cycling could see a big boost from the return of a popular national tour marking its return after the 1992 demise of the Nissan Classic. A new generation of racers will be writing a new page in Irish cycling history with Wednesday’s start in

Millar had a bad start on Stage 19 through no fault of his own.

The full rock-garden treatment.

The day began with an easy enough start so as to lull the unsuspecting into complacency.

Some made the meistake of looking forward to the descent

Does it track blood-loss, as well?

Share the road!

Spent....

The only thing that will get these guys to stand up...

... is food.

Irish tour back with flourish

For now, we're using this as our press room... really.

Ireland has a lot to offer. Adding bikes is just a bonus

Our latest reader-submitted Photo Gallery is now ready for your viewing pleasure. Of course, a new gallery also means the naming of the winner of our most recent contest. Sorting through this last round of images, we found ourselves checking back in with Beki Titus Waisath’s “The sky's the limit . . . or is it?” Check it out. The picture is not only in a beautiful setting, it leaves you wondering… wondering about what’s over the horizon and what’s around the next corner. Beki, please drop us a note at Rosters@InsideInc.comto work out the details and we’ll send you a copy of our new

American Brian Lopes (GT) and Dutchwoman Anneke Beerten (Bikepark.ch) took the second round of the 2007 Jeep King of the Mountains competition, held August 18 in San Luis Obispo, California. Each now hold their respective series leads with one race remaining in the three-race series. Lopes and Beerten both took easy wins with winners of the opening Jeep KOM races — American Jill Kintner and Czech Michal Prokop — missed the competition. Both Kintner (GT) and Prokop (Author) are hoping to make their country’s respective BMX Olympic teams, and participated in an Olympic tune-up event in Beijing

VeloNews Photo Contest: A new winner and a new gallery

Lopes heads to a win,

Tour de France runner-up Cadel Evans and three-time world time-trial champion Michael Rogers say next year's road race at the Beijing Olympics will be tougher than expected. The Australian pair made their assessments after racing on the circuit Saturday as part of at the Good Luck Beijing Road Cycling International Invitational, the official 2008 Olympic test event. Italian Gabriele Bosisio won the race, three seconds ahead of Kazakh Alexandr Dyachenko with Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali third at 0:47. Evans took fifth in the same time. Jon Garcia was the top finisher for the six-man U.S.